During endoscopic surgery, soft tissues are grasped and stretched repeatedly, and excessive grasping force can cause unwanted tissue damage. With traditional endoscopic graspers, high pressures are applied to the tissue by the tip of the jaw, causing trauma. However, it has been shown that replacing a portion of the teeth at the tip of the jaw with a compliant material reduces the peak tip pressure during grasping (Marucci et al., 2002, Australian and New Zealand J. Surgery, 72:476-8).
The device described herein provides an inexpensive, fully compliant grasper capable of softly but firmly grasping tissue using a jaw made completely from a monolithic compliant member. By allowing the grasper to deform as it interacts with the tissue, the grasper can apply a more uniform pressure during grasping to, thereby, avoid unnecessary trauma.